Feeling Overwhelmed?

Activity 3 If you don’t have time for anything else this summer, read! READ READ READ I can’t say it enough. The more trips you take to the library, the more likely your child is to eventually start picking out books they enjoy. For instance, my oldest Biggie, hates to sit down for any duration of time to read. When I take him to the library to pick his own SpongeBob books he is less reluctant to fight me on it.

I am not one who likes to feel rushed. Now that Mother’s Day is over (and after the spectacular job that my husband did with it), I immediately start thinking about what to do for him for Father’s Day. Perhaps, you’re in the same boat. Have no fear, here is a list of simple, but thoughtful crafts for your kiddos (and some for you) to make for Dad:

Rows of desks. Colorful supplies. White dry erase board covering the walls. I love the classroom. But I’m not quite ready to go back full time. So… I signed up to be a sub. Once a week, my cell phone wakes me up at 5:30am where an automated voice offers me a job. I usually accept the first job I am offered. I view subbing as an adventure to experience new schools and grade levels. Anything goes.

I am out-spoken, blunt, and honest. I can’t help it. It’s the way I always have been and probably always will be. Because of this, I am shy and don’t typically like to meet new people. I’ve never been good at blending in and going with the crowd which tends to make one unpopular. Some might say I suffer from chronic verbal diarrhea.

“Mama, can we go to fro-yo, tonight?” Oh, how I wish we could go get frozen yogurt every night. (Frankly, I sometimes do after my daughter has gone to bed.) However, as a parent, I can’t justify letting my child eat that many sweets. I am a self-proclaimed sugar-aholic. I don’t want my daughter to have the same weight issues I did as I struggled to gain control over my sweet tooth. That’s why this dessert is fantastic. Ice Cream in a Blender! However, it is not ice cream in the traditional sense. All you need for this recipe is bananas and milk. There is no added sugar whatsoever. This recipe takes a little prep work, so you will need to plan a day ahead of time. First, take a bunch of bananas that are just starting to turn brown. Peel each banana and break it into chunks. Place these chunks in a plastic Ziploc freezer bag and freeze. I plan for at least one banana per person. Let freeze at least 24 hours. Place frozen bananas in a blender and pour in 1/2 cup of milk to start. Blend. If the bananas get stuck and you hear a whirring noise from unmoving blender blades, stop the blender, stir with a long spoon to dislodge the bananas and add a little more milk. Keep doing this until you have a consistency that looks like this: Scoop out banana ice cream using an ice cream scoop. We like to top ours with a few chocolate chips, a little bit of chocolate syrup or some peanut butter. This ice cream is creamy and delicious and doesn’t have a strong banana flavor. I recommend eating the entire batch because it does not taste as good if stored in a freezer – a strong banana flavor is present. Whenever my daughter asks for banana ice cream, I’m happy to oblige. And my husband is a pretty big fan as well.

My daughter hasn’t been absent very much from school. In fact, I’ve only had to call the attendance line a couple of times. When I dial attendance, I am greeted with a lengthy message detailing all of the information I need to give for my absent child: name, teacher’s name, date of absence, reason for absence, blood type… ok, not the blood type. While these directions would be easy to follow for any normal human being, when I call in, it’s because there is something wrong with my kid. This causes me stress and my brain goes a bit crazy under stress.

I used to be a big ideas NOW person. I would have this amazing idea that I would want to implement… tomorrow. I felt that my big idea would change EVERYTHING. In regards to teaching, I believed I could change student learning with one action. Test scores would dramatically rise. Students would be enthralled. The only drawback was that it would take a complete overhaul of everything that I was doing right then – change the way I organized my classroom, change the way I taught a lesson, just change everything because what I was doing was not working. I was a pretty stressed-out person.

What do you do when you can’t call in sick as a mommy? I fear I have contracted the flu on one of the busiest weekends in months. It’s my second sons 3rd birthday (YAY!) and I always take the boys for a special trip for their birthday. This year we went to Connect 5 (stay tuned for a detailed post) and we had a birthday party today. Tomorrow is Water Day at church.

My daughter, Llama, has been exceedingly patient in having a new brother. Every day, when she comes home from school, we have a routine. She unpacks her backpack, removes her homework folder and starts working at the kitchen table while I put Dude down for a nap. Dude is only 9-months old, so I nurse him to sleep in our guest room which is right above our garage. This process involves me laying down on the bed with him and not being able to move or talk for about 15-minutes. This took some practice with my daughter, but she has learned to be very quiet and not call out for me during that time. I usually park my car in the garage, but currently, we are trying to sell our entertainment center. This large piece of wood furniture was located in our upstairs bedroom, but to make it easier for our potential buyer, we moved it into my space in the garage. Thus, I’m parking outside.